THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It is crazy to look back at the 2000s and admit how experimental Hollywood got when adapting films of characters from Marvel Comics. Some grew to be amazing like X-Men and Spider-Man. Then there were duds like Daredevil & Elektra. If there is one that felt like it was in the middle, it'd have to be 2005's Fantastic Four.
PLOT
The film follows Dr. Reed Richards and childhood friend Benjamin Grimm who convince Victor Von Doom, CEO of his own industry, to allow access of one of his space stations to test exposure effects of cosmic energy clouds. Victor agrees to do it and in turn recruits his girlfriend Susan Storm (Reed's ex) to be involved as chief genetics researcher and in turn, she recruits her reckless brother Johnny to co-pilot alongside Ben. The trip in space doesn't go according to plan when the cloud arrives ahead of schedule and breaks through the station to expose the core characters. They do get to recover back on Earth safely, but one by one they discover to have gained superpowers: Reed has gained an elastic body, Susan can turn invisible & summon force fields, and Johnny can engulf himself on fire without feeling harmed. As for Ben, he transforms into a large orange rocked figure that has gained him super strength & durability. When he reveals his new predicament to his fiancé Debby (Lauren Holden), she rejects him for it. At the Brooklyn Bridge by following morning, Grimm inadvertently causes a traffic jam when saving a man from from a suicide attempt. When his friends get there and use their powers to contain the damage and save lives, the public media praises them for their efforts and dubs them the ‘Fantastic Four’. Victor uses this incident to impress the stockholders, but the attempted exploitation and the failed mission in space convinces them to instead pull out of Von Doom Industries. Not wanting to keep their powers, Reed convinces his friends to live with him in the Baxter Building to study their abilities before building a machine to undo what happened. In his process, Victor offers support but Richards blames him for the failure. Johnny prefers embracing what they can do rather than be afraid of it and gives nicknames for the four: He calls himself 'Human Torch', Sue gets called 'Invisible Woman’, Reed gets called 'Mr. Fantastic' and Ben gets called 'The Thing'. Victor's mutation would slowly start kicking in, as his skin turns to organic metal and can start producing electricity, motivated to take revenge on those he believe wronged him. After killing lead stockholder Ned (Michael Kopsa), he drives a wedge with the Fantastic Four, convincing Ben that Reed is spending more time rekindling things with Sue than focus on building the machine. When Ben walks out on the group, Reed tries testing out the machine on himself. It only backfires when he cannot generate enough power to push the storm to critical mass, temporarily exhausting his body in the process. With Victor spying on him, he shares this with Ben and convinces him to try it too. He does help him by producing his own electricity that helps Grimm go back to normal, but it benefitted him as it only accelerated his condition. With Ben realizing his intentions, Doom knocks him unconscious and abducts Reed, torturing him by trapping him in a super cooling unit held in his building. He then shoots at Johnny with a heat seeking missile, but the Human Torch is able to evade when learning how to fly. Sue tries to save Reed from Doom (now dawned in armor originating from his homeland of Latveria), but the friend turned enemy outmatches her. Ben reverts back to the Thing to better the odds and when the Four re-assemble, the fight gets taken from one building to another, to the public streets. The newfound team is able to defeat him when Sue & Johnny trap him in an inferno of flames and Reed & Ben douse him with cold water, which causes thermal shock to freeze his body. In the film's epilogue, The Four are praised for stopping such a threat, Sue accepts Reed's marriage proposal and Ben accepts his new identity through his newfound relationship with blind artist Alicia Masters. A mid credits scene shows Victor's body get transported to Latveria.
THOUGHTS
For someone who got to read the original comics by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee as a kid, I was extremely excited for what would come from this, especially after enjoying previous Marvel adaptations. I’m not gonna overreact and try calling this amazing, but I believe Director Tim Story hits the check marks in making somewhat of a joyride. I mean you know you’re gonna remember this movie for the right reasons if you get hyped from catchphrases like “It’s clobbering time’ or ‘Flame on’. There is solid editing to the action sequences and the visual effects that bring life to these unique powers are arguably aging well. Even the costumes hold up to the standards on the realistic standards most fans expect. While I don’t think this film is amazing compared to Spider-Man 2, but I think this film holds up on his own because it is able to give a solid interpretation of how we should embrace what makes us different (rather than dismiss it) and value the idea of teamwork because not everyone can do things alone. These are the themes I understood from the comics and are fairly captured through an ensemble that should be respected more than they already do. Without question, I feel like Ioan Gruffudd nails it as Mr. Fantastic, for looking the part and capturing the vibe that he’s got the right passion when it comes to expanding the horizons of science. If he’s willing to bankrupt for it, you can’t deny where his heart is. Not a bad thing though, the takeaway is that his career as a scientist makes him socially detached and while it was hard, he was able to build the family he never thought he would have which I don’t doubt him being grateful for. While he was scared of his powers originally because he never thought of if ever being possible, he was able to put it to an advantage when beating a threat that didn’t deserve it and with that, his conscience is clear for the first time. As said before, Reed would never have gone down far in life without the people that care more than he imagined. He was such a workaholic that put so much work on his plate that he forgot he was incapable of settling down until he met Sue. The stunning Jessica Alba was a signature highlight of this movie for being a natural matriarch as said protagonist. Her first rodeo with Reed didn’t work out before because she did lose her patience on how he was an over thinker and didn’t go with the flow. Then she gave a Victor a chance because she respected him for not hesitating, but she never went further with him because she knew she didn’t want him deep down, hence never accepting his marriage proposal before the storm. She gave Reed a second chance because she saw how more willing he was trying to change for her, and reminded the chemistry was always there due to their passions with science almost being on par. It took a while for things to be truly organized in their own manner as shown in the sequel, but Richard’s’ proposal here came to show their commitment to make it work and they luckily did. Before defining his career as Steve Rogers in the MCU, Chris Evans felt so right as Human Torch. He doesn’t want to be a rebel the way others look at him, but he still wants to enjoy however he pleases. And in his case, it’s doing it without the worry of approval from the likes of his sister. He still proves to have a heart of gold when shields a girl from getting caught on fire by absorbing it himself. He chooses to be impulsive with his decisions for the most part because it’s better for him than to live with worry. If it isn’t for him to have this mindset, the rest of the group wouldn’t be comfortable with their powers and that says a lot. That definitely applies for the one member who had the most drastic change. In my opinion, Michael Chiklis was the defining piece of the movie’s puzzle in his transformative performance as the Thing. He was normally a confident guy but when his appearance, it vanished and it made him almost infinitely pessimistic. With his fiancé dumping him and the public surprised every time they see him, he felt alone until he met someone who understood the need to sulk everyday on everyone’s opinions are pointless. Kerry Washington brought all the warmth necessary to make us love Alicia from the instant we see her. Her optimism makes her a great match for him Ben because their opposite opinions attract each other and nothing more. Seeing them get together by the end of the story here and still together in the sequel makes their relationship all the more special. With such unique heroes, it’s kind of a given for there to be a villain to be formidable. In a way, I think we got a solid iteration of Dr. Doom compared to later iterations because Julian McMahon plays him in a straightforward sense on being an egotistical figure where he only acts based on how it’ll benefit him in the long run. In this case, having a connection with Reed only lasted so long because he was hoping to use him for financial gain after already being financially superior in advance. He pursued Sue originally not to rub it in Reed’s face but to prove he can take anyone for himself if he wanted. That was where they were bound to split before they knew it because he was never gonna appreciate her the longer they were together. He then went for being physically powerful after the F4 went public and ironically, it blew up in his face befit he ever had a true advantage. His powers may have been simplified, but I didn’t mind because it would’ve taken too long to explain the complicity of it all that the comics have explained. And although he continued to be a problem in the sequel, at least each time he was defeated proved he was never the god he sought himself out to be. This movie is overall entertaining, but decent stuff can’t escape the fact there’s things bother me upon rewatching. Like for instance, why would Victor’s statue be made in public while people are walking around with no safety measures? J mean that’s gotta be a lawsuit waiting to happen. It was one thing for Ben to ask Sue when they’re leaving to break tension between her & Reed, but it’s a dumb question when Vic barely greenlit it. That’s more weird of a decision when Sue walks in on cue to answer Ben’s question about their suits. I don’t know about you, but why is the nurse (Maria Menounos) so calm about Johnnys powers? She does respond to Johnny engulfing himself on fire without noticing, but she is way too calm on how he created a jacuzzi upon crash landing. It was admittedly funny for Johnny to still have her jacket to get back to campus clothed, but why not go straight to his room instead of towards Reed? I know it’s important to tell him what happened, but he could’ve put on some clothes first. Moving on, how was it only one disturbance occurred when Ben was roaming in public before the bridge scene? I mean it’s not like he wasn’t wearing a mask, so I do feel like more could’ve spotted him. It was smart for Sue to streak while being invisible, but how exactly does this work for Reed & Johnny? I mean the cops should’ve stopped them when they could if the whole point of their presence was crowd control. Also, I refuse to believe Deb made it to the bridge on time to call it quits on Ben. Her first reaction outside the house was enough. Also, why does it take so long for Ben to pick up a glass without breaking it? He already had a hard time carrying utensils, so it’s a surprise the local bar didn’t have glasses prepared for his strength. I then wonder why does Ben listen to Vic’s assistant Leonard (Hamish Linklater) without hesitation to go the Baxter Building? I refuse to believe Ben trusted him enough to follow him at night. And how the hell is Time Square empty when Johnny sees the Baxter Building glow? If he’s so famous, fans should be all over him at that moment. That’s more unbelievable than Ben recovering from Vic’s strike after reverting back to his normal self. It’s even a relief Ben was willing to be the Thing to help the others, but there ain’t no way he did that and rushed to Doom’s building in time to make the save because it’s not like he leapt like the Hulk would. If he did, that should’ve been clarified. It was smart to freeze Doom, but I feel like Ben should’ve went the extra mile by destroying his body into brittle. That would’ve saved us from a real bad sequel. Other than that, I find the film quite fine for what it is. In short, Fantastic Four is a solid superhero film playing the hits in being generally entertaining. If you love superhero flicks, I don’t see a reason to skip it.
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